Ibrahim Diallo, Trinity College

Featured Scholar

Winter 2009

During his sophomore year, Ibrahim Diallo, Trinity Posse 5 (New York), founded the African Development Coalition (ADC), a network of student civil servants dedicated to working towards peace, education and development on the continent.

This past summer, Ibrahim and three other ADC members took on their first project: rebuilding the Mitty Maadou Primary School in the Guinea village Ibrahim’s family is from.

“In the village, we saw the poor condition of the school, but also the absence of girls, who were obligated to fulfill domestic chores, such as retrieving water for their families, in lieu of attending school,” Ibrahim says. “There was also no housing for teachers, so it was difficult for the school to attract and maintain teachers. We wanted to make education more accessible.”

The group of four Trinity students raised $30,000 in four months—including $5,000 raised in Guinea—and spent seven weeks completely renovating the school and constructing a three-room teacher residence. They also provided textbooks and classroom materials and helped build a new water pump, giving the small village clean water and a renewed opportunity for girls to attend school, since they were now able to retrieve water en route.

Ibrahim immigrated to the United States from Guinea, West Africa, at the age of 13. While his parents stayed behind, he and his siblings settled with their oldest brother in Brooklyn, New York, where Ibrahim attended Brooklyn International High School and quickly discovered a passion for global issues.

Now a junior, Ibrahim is studying international relations and human rights. He has been recognized by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and was awarded the inaugural Leo Nevas Human Rights Student Advocate Award. He is vice president of the student government association at Trinity and a resident assistant. Upon graduation, he plans to go to law school and continue international development work.

ADC’s next project will be in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where they hope to build a new computer lab at a university.